MARIANA PRIETO
Anywhere you have
people making choices,
you can have design.
We like to believe we're fully in control of our decisions, but design, and designers, have a huge impact on how we make choices every day of our lives. The private sector has known this for decades, leveraging design as a method of creating products people will want to purchase. In the last decade non-profits have applied this method to their work, and taken the principles of design to create desirable experiences that can improve people’s quality of life around the world.
Below are a few examples of projects I've worked on that leverage design to connect with communities,
making products or services more desirable, and therefore more impactful and more likely to succeed in the long run.
Many of these examples are from my work in international development and humanitarian aid before I decided to join wildlife conservation full time.
More examples specific to conservation coming soon!
Smelly Elephant Repellent
Murchison Falls, Uganda
Overall Challenge:
How might we build an impactful, long term, and economically sustainable solution for human-elephant conflict?
How might we leverage the success of the smelly elephant repellent and its potential marketability to achieve this goal?
More information coming soon.
In partnership with WildAid
Preventing Crocodile-Human Conflict
Orinoco Region, Colombia
Overall Challenge:
To control and prevent human-crocodile conflict involving one of the most endangered crocodiles in the world.
Some Questions to Answer:
How can we build on the existing value of the crocodile in a region where the crocodile has been extinct for years, but the legend of its ferociousness has not? How can we prepare the community for coexistence with an animal they currently fear, but is being released in their rivers today?
Further funding for this work required. Please inquire if you’re interested in supporting the long term survival of the Orinoco Crocodile and how you can get involved.
In partnership with Fundación Palmarito de Casanare
Lowering Teenage Pregnancy Rates
Lusaka, Zambia
Overall Challenge:
To lower teenage pregnancy rates in Zambia by increasing teenage engagement in Marie Stopes clinics.
Some Questions to Answer:
Why are teenagers not engaging in family planning services? How can we better design the experience to reach Zambian teenagers? What roadblocks do they face and how can we best design for these? What can Marie Stopes do to improve their relationship with youth and be able to serve their unmet needs?
Solution:
A full service, teen-only clinic experience designed to prevent unplanned pregnancy in Zambia.
IDEO.org, in partnership with Marie Stopes International
Increasing Vaccine Rates Post-Ebola
Harper, Liberia
Overall Challenge:
To enable local community health volunteers to deliver timely immunizations to all children under the age of five.
Questions to Answer:
Why are mothers avoiding vaccinations? What effect has ebola had on the existing perception of healthcare practices? Can we build on the current changes of the healthcare system to improve vaccination delivery in rural areas? Are community health volunteers the right avenue for vaccine delivery?
Solution:
We uncovered that the original hypothesis of a new service proposal was not the best solution, which saved the IRC thousands of dollars that may have been invested into implementing an idea that worked in theory, but would not have worked in practice.
Furthermore, we developed a set of guidelines for Airbel's future immunization work in Liberia and beyond.
International Rescue Committee, 2016.
Designing Loans for Victims of Typhoons
Tacloban, The Philippines
Overall Challenge:
To give victims of Typhoon Haiyan an opportunity to rebuild their livelihood, while preparing them for financial stability in the future.
Questions to Answer:
How can we build a mobile bank for a predominantly unbanked population? How can we design an intuitive and accessible experience for all? How can we offer formal services to people who have lost all form of identification? And how can we help people begin saving again when their only savings were literally washed away in the storm?
Solution:
A first-of-its-kind loan service to help rural Filipinos borrow money to rebuild the livelihoods they lost with the typhoon, even without the paperwork commonly required by banks (like an ID).
It also prepares families for future catastrophes by building on a current insurance practice, the funeral fund. The experience was designed to be intuitive and accessible building on current cultural practices.
IDEO.org, in partnership with BanKO, 2014.
Redesigning the Refugee Resettlement Experience - United States
Overall Challenge:
With the recent attempts to ban refugees from entering the United States, refugee resettlement is under profound threat. Our team worked to find innovative, scalable and cost effective approaches to support incoming refugees.
Questions to Answer:
What areas of the process are in need of updating or improving from a refugee’s perspective? What is the real experience of entering the US and how can it be improved? How can we best support incoming refugees into the United States?
Solution:
Developed a series of programs which focused on underemployment, long term support after the initial arrival months, and support for small daily struggles that could often have permanent negative repercussions.
One small example out of large piece of work:
Assisting families with the task of sorting through their mail. A mundane part of daily life that can be incredibly stressful for non english speaking refugees. Consider spam mail which often reads URGENT in red letters versus nondescript white government envelopes, often left unread.
The lack of distinction between them can cause a family to lose their welfare benefits, making the simple of of receiving mail a frustrating, and potentially devastating, experience for a family. Our large piece of work included a safe, and intuitive, mail sorting service for incoming refugees.
International Rescue Committee, 2016.
Image courtesy of IDEO.org
Defining the Informal Workforce
Kenya, South Africa, Thailand, The Philippines
Overall Challenge:
To better understand the lives of informal workers and the roadblocks they face when accessing healthcare services. Until this project, no formal documentation had been written on the informal workforce.
Some Questions to Answer:
Who are the informal workers? What are the largest healthcare roadblocks they face and how can we remove these? How can we reach men and encourage them to take control of their own health?
Solution:
Specific and practical guidelines for The Rockefeller Foundation to use when implementing healthcare services for the informal workforce across Asia and Africa.
IDEO.org, in partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation.